When I started telling people about Swelter Coffee's mission to source coffee from women producers, multiple people pointed me to Ruth Ann Church of Artisan Coffee Imports. She has built her career and business on partnering with women-led coffee cooperatives in Rwanda. Working with Artisan Coffee Imports feels more like a collaboration than a business transaction, which is also how I like to view Swelter Coffee: building relationships, not just selling specialty coffee beans.
A Woman Who Went to Rwanda
Ruth Ann's connection to Rwanda has developed over many years. She brought her family to live there for a year while working on a coffee origin research project. That's where she first met the women's groups she now imports for, and the relationships started to grow. She didn't come in as an outsider making promises; she came in as someone who stayed, learned, and earned trust.
She's also a certified Q Grader, a coffee supply chain sustainability consultant, and holds a master's degree in Community Sustainability. But what impresses me most is the kind of green coffee importer she is: one who pays premiums that go directly back to the women's groups, supports their continuous improvement, and stays in relationship with them year after year.
That's who I trust to represent Swelter Coffee's values at origin.
Shown above: Ruth Ann with Esperance UWAMAHORO, president of the Agaseke Women's group
Agasake's Rwanda: A Gift in Every Cup
The name Agaseke comes from a traditional Rwandan pointed-top basket, the kind used to present gifts.
The 265 women of the Agaseke group are part of the larger Kopakaki Dugegure cooperative in Rwanda's Western Province, in the Karongi district near Lake Kivu. Ruth Ann first met the cooperative's leaders in 2016, and in 2020 she became Agaseke's very first outside buyer. That act of showing up and choosing them helped put this group on the map. From there they organized, elected officers, trained, and made a plan for how to invest the premiums they earned.
Swelter Coffee started featuring Ejo Heza Rwanda in 2023, another incredible women's coffee cooperative under the Artisan umbrella, before making the switch to Agaseke this year due to supply chain changes. Both groups are extraordinary. I was disappointed to move away from Ejo Heza, but excited to build a relationship with the Agaseke group, and reminded of how much depth Ruth Ann's network holds.
In the cup, Agaseke is warm and layered: brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and cherry. A single origin Rwanda coffee worth savoring slowly.
Atnago's Ethiopia: From the Birthplace of Coffee
Ethiopia is where coffee comes from, literally. And sourcing women-produced coffee there is harder than in most other regions.
Most Ethiopian coffee moves through large cooperatives or washing stations where individual contributions get pooled and lost. Women do a significant share of the labor, but their coffee gets combined with the rest, making it impossible to trace or pay a premium to the women coffee farmers who grew it.
The Atnago women's group has deliberately stepped outside that system. They're an all-female group of outgrowers within the larger Limu Saka cooperative in the Oromia region, and they keep their single origin Ethiopia coffee entirely separate from the men's lots. That separation is the whole point. It's what makes it possible to buy their coffee specifically and for you to know exactly whose hands grew it.
That kind of coffee traceability requires relationships and an importer willing to maintain them, which is exactly what Ruth Ann does in partnership with Fehem Exporters.
Why This Partnership Matters
Swelter Coffee is a small brand. We can't be everywhere at once, and for now we can't build direct relationships with every producer we want to support. That's why having a partner like the Artisan Coffee Imports team matters so much. Ruth Ann has built the direct trade coffee relationships and maintained the sourcing standards over years that we can put our full trust into.
